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Making marshmallows is like magic.
Think about it. Three ordinary ingredients – sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin, plus a little water – go from your everyday pantry staples to wonderous, fluffy, shiny marshmallow in just a matter of minutes.
It’s one of the things that a baker can have in her arsenal that elicits a truly awe-inspiring response. And the funny thing is that they are ridiculously easy to make.
Most Americans are familiar with the Jet Puffed cylindrical shaped marshmallows. Mini ones for hot chocolate and giant ones for roasting and toasting. And apparently, Americans love their marshmallows. They eat 90 million pounds of marshmallows per year!
But over the years, homemade or gourmet marshmallows have been popping up in stores. Once you’ve tried a homemade marshmallow its hard to go back.
There are endless variations when you make your own, too. Use vanilla extract for a traditional marshmallow or add peppermint extract and a little red food coloring for a pretty candy cane effect.
These have become a staple in my Christmas baking over the years and makes great gifts. This year’s batch went to my co-workers in cute little tins, topped off with adorable homemade penguin tags made by one of my best friends.
But nothing goes better with homemade peppermint marshmallows that a steaming mug of hot chocolate to share with a loved one on a cold December night.
Enjoy!
Marshmallows
Adapted from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics
Note: I learned (though a math error on my part) that using slightly less than 3 cups of sugar (20 ounces versus 21 ounces) results in a less sticky marshmallow, making cutting squares a less messy endeavor.
Canola oil, for brushing
3 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (if using peppermint extract, only use 1 teaspoon – peppermint is much stronger than vanilla)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Brush a 9 x 13 inch baking dish with canola oil. Line the pan with parchment paper long enough to overhand the sides. Brush parchment with oil. Set dish aside.
Pour 3/4 cup of water in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle gelatin over the water. Let stand for 5 minutes until softened.
Place the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and 3/4 cup water in a saucepan over high heat. Let mixture come to a boil. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and cook until the mixture reaches 238 degrees, or soft ball stage, about 9 minutes.
Attach the mixer bowl to the stand mixer and fit with a whisk attachment. With the mixer running on low, pour the hot syrup mixture down the side of the bowl, mixing into the gelatin. Slowly increase the speed to high and beat until the mixture is very stiff, fluffy and white, about 12 minutes. Add in the extract.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and let set, uncovered, for at least three hours.
To unmold, dust a cutting board with confectioners’ sugar. Lift marshmallow from pan using the parchment overhang and invert onto the cutting board. Peel the parchment away from marshmallow. Using a long serrated knife, cut marshmallow into desired size squares, cleaning the knife under cold water as necessary to avoid sticking.
To say that I like tradition would be an understatement. Far be it from me to be the one to break a tradition for silly reasons like being a grown adult. That is the reason why my two cousins and I continue to set our alarms for 2:00am on Christmas morning to sneak downstairs and open our stockings, only to re-wrap them and open them with our families a few hours later. Its just tradition.
So if I’m going to continue our stocking tradition, I was clearly going to continue making the Christmas fudge every year. My mom makes a few fudge recipes every Christmas but this one is the fudge recipe, Great Grandma Perrone’s Sees fudge recipe. My mom has been making this fudge for almost 38 years and remembers Grandma Perrone making it every year when she was younger, meaning this recipe has been made in our family for close to 50 years.
My mom remembers when she was younger waiting anxiously with my uncle for my great grandma and grandpa to drive up from Salinas, knowing that there was a tin full of fudge riding in the car with them. When they would arrive at my grandparent’s house, they would rush out to the car to help unload the car and would be greeted with a big hug and an even bigger piece of fudge from my great grandpa.
For me, this is always the first thing my mom makes when she begins her holiday baking bonanza every year. Even to this day, I will sneak into the back room where all of the baked goodies are stored and cut a piece from the still slightly warm batch of fudge. Its just tradition.
Great Grandma Perrone’s Sees Fudge
Like any recipe where chocolate is the star, the better chocolate you use the better the finished product is.
4 1/2 cups sugar
12 ounces evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), 1/2 cup margarine (1 stick)
18 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
8 ounces marshmallow cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chopped walnuts
Butter a 9 x 13 inch pan and set aside.
Place chocolate chips, marshmallow cream and vanilla in a large bowl and set aside.
In a large sauce pan, bring to a boil the sugar, evaporated milk, butter and margarine. Lower heat and boil for approximately ten minutes, until the mixture reaches 234 degrees on a candy thermometer. Stir mixture constantly so it does not burn. Pour mixture into the bowl with chocolate and stir until well blended. Add chopped nuts an stir.
Pour into buttered pan and cool overnight.
The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.
Hi, I’m Allison and I love marshmallows. There, I said it. There is something about their squishy yet fluffy texture that just intrigues me. I love them burnt to a crisp when it comes to smores, my favorite holiday fudge recipe that my mom has made since I can remember calls for marshmallow cream, and I have a slightly borderline crazy obsession with Peeps. I even have a little purple stuffed chick Peep that my mom found at Target sitting on my desk at work.
But I like to think that good things have come from this extreme love of marshmallows. It has inspired me to go beyond the bags of Jet Puffed marshmallows and actually make marshmallows. My first foray into marshmallow making was when I came across Martha’s Smores Bar recipe in her Original Classics cookbook. These marshmallows were g o o d but I didn’t stop there. I was drawn to the idea of making the marshmallow cream to use in my mom’s holiday fudge recipe. That idea didn’t quite work the way I expected but I have learned from my mistakes. I like to think that I am wiser in my ways now and quite frankly, I like to brag that I have made marshmallows.
I have not dabbled in marshmallow making since the fudge experiement so I was thrilled to see marshmallows as one of the components of this month’s Daring Bakers. Considering my love of marshmallows, I was kind of appalled at the fact that I don’t think I have ever had a store-bought mallow cookie. Blasphemy, I know. I had a moment of weakness last week and almost purchased a box, for comparison purposes of course, but decided that no matter how good they tasted, the recipe I was about to make would not only taste way better but also be healthier in terms of no preservatives and chemicals and junk.
The recipe was easy to follow but I think the estimated servings were a little off. The recipe states about 2 dozen cookies. I blew that estimate out of the water…I ended up with almost 140 cookies! I brought cookies into the office two days in a row and still had a whole tupperware left that I ended up bringing over to my parents. They were delicious though. I substituted mint extract for the vanilla called for in the recipe. I might put a little more than the 1/4 teaspoon called for next time. The flavoring got a little lost once the cookies were all assembled. The process of making the cookies was fun in a methodical kind of way. It was easy to get lost in a trance while staring at a tabletop full of litte cookies with piped marshmallow domes. All in all, this was a fun challenge to make and another excuse for me to get to make marshmallows.
Recipe can be found here.
Bake Your Heart Out 